I’m almost embarassed to be writing about gardening as a spiritual metaphor because it’s become something of a cliche, but with Paul’s words to the Corinthians in mind, “We are fools for the sake of Christ,” (1 Cor 4:10) I’ll saunter on.
The backyard of the house...

I hear there are rumors about things happening at St. Anthony Messenger and our parent, Franciscan Media. The true story is that, in a move to grow this ministry, we’ve decided to focus on St. Anthony Messenger and our popular lines of Franciscan Media and Servant Books. And we will continue to develop...

Last Sunday, over Memorial Day weekend, I went on a pilgrimage of sorts, a quest I actually promised myself to take for more than three decades.
The now dilapidated St. Ann’s Hermitage (the words “St. Ann” seen in the detail above and on the right side of the building), a former tool shed...

How strange is it that we find the answers when we least expect it. I had one of those moments a while ago at a meeting on the New Evangelization. Before I get to that answer, let me start with the question.
A few years ago, during Lent, I went to confession. Now, most people reading this are probably...

Recently, one of our friars said this in a homily:
“It does not matter who we are, but whose we are.”
I think what he was trying to tell us is that the most important reality of our identity is that we belong to God. Once we really believe that, and appreciate what it means, everything else falls...

This past weekend I gathered with seventeen other women for the last session of a nine month program I had participated in, the Women’s Leadership Institute at the Hartford Seminary. Once a month since September, on Friday night and all day Saturday, this group had come together in prayer, study,...